Holiday at Home: Water, wine and politics

This week, we explore the east coast – well, coast doesn’t refer to an ocean but to the Moselle River though. A region full of vineyards, water – and history – yes. We start the tour in the south-eastern corner of Luxembourg, at a symbolic place for European integration.

In the European Museum in Schengen, I meet Kim Dumont, the deputy head of the European centre.

The Schengen agreement enabled free movement of people and goods in the European Economic Community. Nowadays it is one of the pillars of the European Union. The Schengen area includes nearly all EU member states and a handful of other European countries. The Schengen Museum freezes this historical moment. Visitors get to listen to interviews of signatories and their travel delegate, to see visual explainers, and copies of the historic documents.

The museum however could be more interactive, more playful. The new exhibition is planned to be finished in 2025, for the fortieth anniversary of the signing. It will be more up to date, more multimedia, more interactive – Kim however can’t talk more about this project just yet.

For now, Kim and his colleagues put a spotlight on the place in front of the museum. In their guided tours, visitors use the museum as a starting point and from there discover Schengen through the monuments and the landscape. The monuments are placed between the museum on the one side and the river Moselle on the other side. While the Moselle water slowly flows towards Germany’s north, the sun shines on the green vines in the back of the museum and all around Schengen. Cyclists and hikers use the sunny weather to spend an afternoon between water and vines. For Schengen, the signing of this important treaty contributed to the village’s attractivity.

Visitors stop in Schengen on their hiking trails which lead them across borders to France and Germany, on their cycling tours that bring them from the French Vosges mountainous region to Koblenz in Germany where the Moselle river flows into the Rhine. For Kim Dumont, who grew up in the village, Schengen is a special place.